Kimono

John Paris

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• Publié par: shyan
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 44
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Kimono, by John
Paris
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Title: Kimono
Author: John Paris
Release Date: June 5, 2004 [eBook #12527]
Language: English
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK KIMONO***
E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Bill Hershey,
and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
KIMONO
byJOHN PARIS
1922
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I AN ANGLO-JAPANESE MARRIAGE
II HONEYMOON
III EASTWARDS
IV NAGASAKI
V CHONKINAVI ACROSS JAPAN
VII THE EMBASSY
VIII THE HALF-CASTE GIRL
IX ITO SAN
X THE YOSHIWARA WOMEN
XI A GEISHA DINNER
XII FALLEN CHERRY-BLOSSOMS
XIII THE FAMILY ALTAR
XIV THE DWARF TREES
XV EURASIA
XVI THE GREAT BUDDHA
XVII THE RAINY SEASON
XVIII AMONG THE NIKKO MOUNTAINS
XIX YAÉ SMITHXX THE KIMONO
XXI SAYONARA (GOOD-BYE)
XXII FUJINAMI ASAKO
XXIII THE REAL SHINTO
XXIV THE AUTUMN FESTIVAL
XXV JAPANESE COURTSHIP
XXVI ALONE IN TOKYO
XXVII LADY BRANDAN
_Utsutsu wo mo
Utsutsu to sara ni
Omowaneba,
Yume wo mo yume to
Nani ka omowamu?
Since I am convinced
That Reality is in no way
Real,
How am I to admit
That dreams are dreams?_The verses and translation above are taken from
A. Waley's "JAPANESE POETRY: THE UTA"
(Clarendon Press), as are many of the classical
poems placed at the head of the chapters.CHAPTER I
AN ANGLO-JAPANESE MARRIAGE
Shibukaro ka
Shiranedo kaki no
Hatsu-chigiri.
Whether the fruit be bitter
Or whether it be sweet,
The first bite tells.
The marriage of Captain the Honourable Geoffrey
Barrington and Miss Asako Fujinami was an
outstanding event in the season of 1913. It was
bizarre, it was picturesque, it was charming, it was
socially and politically important, it was everything
that could appeal to the taste of London society,
which, as the season advances, is apt to become
jaded by the monotonous process of Hymen in
High Life and by the continued demand for costly
wedding presents.
Once again Society paid for its seat at St.
George's and for its glass of champagne and
crumb of cake with gifts of gold and silver and
precious stones enough to smother the tiny bride;
but for once in a way it paid with a good heart, not
merely in obedience to convention, but for the sake
of participating in a unique and delightful scene, a
touching ceremony, the plighting of East and West.Would the Japanese heiress be married in a
kimono with flowers and fans fixed in an elaborate
coiffure? Thus the ladies were wondering as they
craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the bride's
procession up the aisle; but, though some even
stood on hassocks and pew seats, few were able
to distinguish for certain. She was so very tiny. At
any rate, her six tall bridesmaids were arrayed in
Japanese dress, lovely white creations
embroidered with birds and foliage.
It is hard to distinguish anything in the perennial
twilight of St.
George's; a twilight symbolic of the new lives which
emerge from its
Corinthian portico into that married world about
which so much has
been guessed and so little is known.
One thing, however, was visible to all as the pair
moved together up to the altar rails, and that was
the size of the bridegroom as contrasted with the
smallness of his bride. He looked like a great rough
bear and she like a silver fairy. There was
something intensely pathetic in the curve of his
broad shoulders as he bent over the little hand to
place in its proud position the diminutive golden
circlet which was to unite their two lives.
As they left the church, the organ was playing
Kimi-ga-ya, the Japanese national hymn. Nobody
recognized it, except the few Japanese who were
present; but Lady Everington, with that
exaggeration of the suitable which is so typical ofher, had insisted on its choice as a voluntary.
Those who had heard the tune before and half
remembered it decided that it must come from the
"Mikado"; and one stern dowager went so far as to
protest to the rector for permitting such a tune to
desecrate the sacred edifice.
Outside the church stood the bridegroom's brother
officers. Through the gleaming passage of sword-
blades, smiling and happy, the strangely assorted
couple entered upon the way of wedlock, as Mr.
and Mrs. Geoffrey Barrington—the shoot of the
Fujinami grafted on to one of the oldest of our
noble families.
"Are her parents here?" one lady was asking her
neighbour.
"Oh, no; they are both dead, I believe."
"What kind of people are they, do you know? Do
Japs have an aristocracy and society and all that
kind of thing?"
"I'm sure I don't know. I shouldn't think so. They
don't look real enough."
"She is very rich, anyhow," a third lady intervened,
"I've heard they are big landowners in Tokyo, and
cousins of Admiral Togo's."
* * * * *
The opportunity for closer inspection of this
curiosity was afforded by the reception given atLady Everington's mansion in Carlton House
Terrace. Of course, everybody was there. The
great ballroom was draped with hangings of red
and white, the national colours of Japan. Favours
of the same bright hues were distributed among
the guests. Trophies of Union Jacks and Rising
Suns were grouped in corners and festooned
above windows and doorways.
Lady Everington was bent upon giving an
international importance to her protégée's
marriage. Her original plan had been to invite the
whole Japanese community in London, and so to
promote the popularity of the Anglo-Japanese
Alliance by making the most of this opportunity for
social fraternising. But where was the Japanese
community in London? Nobody knew. Perhaps
there was none. There was the Embassy, of
course, which arrived smiling, fluent, and almost
too well-mannered. But Lady Everington had been
unable to push very far her programme for
international amenities. There were strange little
yellow men from the City, who had charge of ships
and banking interests; there were strange little
yellow men from beyond the West End, who
studied the Fine Arts, and lived, it appeared, on
nothing. But the hostess could find no ladies at all,
except Countess Saito and the Embassy dames.
Monsieur and Madame Murata from Paris, the
bride's guardians, were also present. But the
Orient was submerged beneath the flood of our
rank and fashion, which, as one lady put it, had to
take care how it stepped for fear of crushing the